66. God's Knowledge of Infinite Things and Evil

Subscribe in Podcast App | Download Transcript

Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Article 12: God’s Knowledge of Infinite Things #

• The Core Problem: The infinite, as infinite, is unknowable because it always has something beyond what is grasped. How can God comprehend infinite things?
• Key Distinction: God knows infinite things not through enumeration (part after part) but by grasping all at once in eternal knowledge. God’s knowledge is not measured by quantity as infinite things are; rather, God’s knowledge is the measure of things.
• Two Modes of Divine Knowledge:
  • Scientia visionis (knowledge of vision): knowledge of things that are, were, or will be in act
  • Scientia simplicis intelligentiae (simple understanding): knowledge of things in potency—in God’s power or creatures’ power
• The Resolution: God knows infinite things because (1) the divine essence is a sufficient likeness of all things, both universal and individual principles; (2) God’s knowledge extends according to the mode of its form (the divine essence); (3) God’s knowledge is the cause of things, not derived from them.

The Nature of Evil and Privation #

• Evil as Privation: Evil is fundamentally a lack of something—a non-being of something you are able to have and should have in a subject capable of having it
• Evil is Not Absolute Nothingness: Augustine’s claim that “sin is nothing” must be understood carefully—evil is not absolute non-being but privation of a perfection
• The Test of Privation: Blindness is evil for an animal that naturally has sight, but blindness is not evil for a cup (which cannot have sight). This shows evil requires both a subject capable of receiving a perfection and the lack of that perfection when it should be present.
• Grades of Evil: Just as there are grades of being and perfection, there are grades of evil—from physical to moral evil

The Affinity Between Love of Wisdom and Love of God #

• Wisdom is described as the highest perfection and greatest good of reason
• Aristotle states in the Metaphysics that either God alone is wise or God is wise preeminently
• There is an affinity between the love of wisdom (philosophy) and the love of God
• Similar affinity exists between love of truth and love of God (Christ: “I am the way, the truth, and the life”)
• Wisdom itself (as first philosophy) is not identical to God but shares a deep connection

Fatherhood in Scripture and Theology: Four Degrees #

Berquist references Thomas’s treatise on the Trinity (Question 33, Article 3) on God’s fatherhood:

• First Degree (Vestige): God as Father of irrational things (e.g., “Father of rain” from Job 38). This is the lowest likeness—merely a footprint or vestige of God.
• Second Degree (Image): Rational creatures made in the image of God have greater affiliation with God than irrational things
• Third Degree (Grace): Those possessing grace are more truly sons of God because grace is participation in the divine nature (Romans 8:16)
• Fourth Degree (Glory): Those who possess and see God as He is in glory are most fully sons of God (Romans 5:2)
• The Principle: The more perfect the likeness, the more the creature approaches true sonship with God. St. Francis’s calling irrational creatures “brother” has scriptural basis in this doctrine.

Infinity and Measure #

• Immensus (Latin): “not measured” or “without measure.” The root mensa (measure) comes from the verb “to measure.”
• Infinity vs. Finite: In physics, infinity pertains to quantity—that which always has something beyond what is grasped. But God’s infinity is not the infinity of quantity.
• God as Measure: “The knowledge of God is the measure of things known.” Since whatever is comprehended by knowledge is limited by the grasping of the knower, and God’s knowledge is infinite, God can know infinite things.
• No Number in God: Following the consideration of God’s simplicity and unity, God has no continuous quantity and no number of gods. Therefore, infinite must be understood in a radically different sense when applied to God.

Key Arguments #

The Objection: Why the Infinite Cannot Be Known #

1. The infinite, as infinite, is unknowable (Aristotle, Physics III)
2. Whatever is comprehended by knowledge is limited by the grasping of the knower (Augustine, City of God XII)
3. The infinite cannot be finalized (made finite)
4. Therefore, infinite things cannot be comprehended by God’s knowledge

The Response: God’s Knowledge Extends to Infinite Things #

1. God knows things in potency as well as in act: God knows not only actual things but all things that are in His power or in creatures’ power to actualize. These are infinite.
2. God’s knowledge is not successive: Unlike human understanding, which progresses from one thought to another, God’s knowledge grasps all things simultaneously in His eternal knowledge.
3. The Form Determines the Mode of Knowledge: The knowledge of any knower extends according to the mode of its form (the principle of knowledge):
   • A sensible form in sense grasps only one individual thing
   • An intelligible form in human understanding grasps a universal that applies to infinite particulars (e.g., knowing what a square is means knowing something true of all squares)
   • The divine essence is the form of God’s understanding and is a sufficient likeness of all things—both universal and individual principles
4. God’s Knowledge as Cause: God’s knowledge is the cause of things (unlike human knowledge, which is caused by things). Therefore, it extends to all that God causes, including the individual matter that makes things singular.
5. The Divine Essence as Likeness of All Things: The divine essence pre-exists all things in God and is a sufficient likeness not only of common principles (which allow universal knowledge) but also of the private/individual principles that distinguish things from each other.

On Evil as Privation #

1. Privation Requires a Subject: Evil is not absolute nothingness but the absence of a perfection in a subject capable of receiving it
2. The Test of Capability: A thing can lack a perfection evil only if (a) it is capable by nature of possessing that perfection, and (b) it should possess it in its proper state
3. Example: Blindness is evil for a man or animal but not a privation for a cup, which has no natural capacity for sight

Important Definitions #

Infinite (infinitum) #

• In physics: that which always has something beyond itself; cannot be exhausted or completed in enumeration
• Related to quantity and limit (finis), which first applies to continuous magnitude
• In theology applied to God: not infinite in the sense of endless quantity, but infinite in perfection and being. God is beyond all measure.

Immensus #

• Latin: “not measured” or “without measure”
• Distinguishes God’s infinity from quantitative infinity
• Often used in official Church documents and creeds

Scientia visionis #

• Knowledge of vision: God’s knowledge of things that are, were, or will be in act
• Concerns actual existences and events

Scientia simplicis intelligentiae #

• Simple understanding or knowledge of simple understanding: God’s knowledge of things in potency
• Concerns what could be or could have been, within God’s power or creatures’ power

Privatio #

• Privation: the absence or lack of a perfection that a subject is naturally capable of possessing
• Evil is fundamentally privative—a non-being of something, not absolute nothingness

Examples & Illustrations #

The Young Woman and Mark #

• Berquist asks a student: “Do you know my brother Mark?” She says no.
• He responds: “Do you know what a man is?” Yes. “Well, that’s what my brother Mark is.”
• The point: You know him in some way through the universal concept “man,” but not in the way you know him simply (as distinguished from other individuals). You know him by what is common, not by what is peculiar to him.

Numbers and Infinity #

• There is always a greater number than any given number
• A straight line can always be bisected into shorter lines, and those shorter lines can be bisected again
• This demonstrates why the infinite, as such, cannot be enumerated or completed

The Square Example #

• By knowing what a square is (the universal form), you in some sense know all squares
• You grasp something that is true of every square, though you don’t know each particular square as distinguished from others
• This illustrates how a universal intelligible form can extend to infinite particulars

St. Francis and the Rain (from Job 38) #

• God is called “Father of rain” in Scripture
• Irrational creatures like rain are “brothers” to us because they are creatures of God
• They bear a vestige or footprint of God, though much less than rational creatures
• St. Francis’s calling his body “brother ass” puts creatures in their proper place in the order of creation

Questions Addressed #

How can God know infinite things if the infinite is by definition unknowable? #

Resolution: God’s knowledge is not limited by the mode of quantitative infinity. God knows infinite things not by enumeration (counting them one after another) but by grasping all at once in His eternal knowledge. The divine essence itself is a sufficient principle for knowing all things—both those in act and those in potency. God’s knowledge is the measure of things, not measured by things.

What exactly is evil? #

Resolution: Evil is not absolute non-being or nothingness (though Augustine sometimes speaks this way), but rather a privation—the absence of a perfection that a subject is naturally capable of possessing and should possess. Blindness is evil because animals are naturally capable of sight and should have it; it is not evil for a cup because cups have no natural capacity for sight.

How do we understand God’s infinity without confusing it with quantitative infinity? #

Resolution: God’s infinity must be distinguished from the infinity discussed in physics, which pertains to quantity and always has something beyond. God’s infinity pertains to His perfection and being. The term immensus (not measured) captures this better than “infinite.” God’s infinity is grasped through negation—denying that God is subject to measure or limitation—and through understanding that God’s knowledge and causality are unlimited.

What is the relationship between these four degrees of fatherhood in Scripture? #

Resolution: The grades move from least to greatest likeness with God: irrational creatures (vestige), rational creatures (image), those with grace (participation in divine nature), and the blessed in glory (vision of God). The more perfect the likeness, the more truly the creature is a “son” of God. This provides theological ground for understanding all creatures as bearing some relation to God as Father.